Mesoamerica
This is the huge highland Mesoamerican city-state that was a powerful center before the Aztecs, famous for its Pyramids of the Sun and Moon.
What is Teotihuacán?
This royal estate, often referred to as the "Lost City of the Inka," was constructed high in the Andes by the Inka ruler Pachacuti Inka.
What is Machu Picchu?
This British archaeologist controversially named the Bronze Age civilization he uncovered at Knossos on Crete the Minoan civilization.
Who is Sir Arthur Evans?
This Roman city in the Bay of Naples was famously buried and preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE.
What is Pompeii?
The deterioration of resources like soil, water, and forests that can contribute to the decline and collapse of a society.
What is Environmental Degradation?
This early Mesoamerican civilization is famous for creating colossal basalt heads, a type of Monumental stone sculpture, likely portraying their individual rulers.
What are the Olmec?
This is the site in northern Peru where the spectacular, unlooted tombs of a Moche warrior-priest, known as the Lord of [site], were discovered in 1987.
What is Sipán (or Moche)?
This syllabic script was used for palace administration by the Mycenaean civilization and represents the earliest known form of the Greek language.
What is Linear B?
The volcano responsible for the modern catastrophe on Montserrat is this one, sharing its name with a well-known feature of the island's landscape.
What is Soufriere Hills?
This term describes the most common type of explanation in collapse studies, suggesting that the decline of a civilization is due to multiple interacting and compounding factors.
What is Multi-causal Collapse?
This complex system of "floating gardens" was used by the Aztec civilization to expand their agricultural production in the swampy environment of the Valley of Mexico.
What are Chinampas?
This tightly organized kin-based community was the basic social unit of the Andean world, responsible for controlling resources in different ecological zones in a system called the Vertical Archipelago.
What is the Ayllu?
This ritual or athletic activity, depicted in frescos at Knossos, shows individuals leaping over a charging bovine and is a signature image of Minoan culture.What is Bull-Leaping?
What is Bull-Leaping?
The former capital of the island of Montserrat, this city was abandoned and buried after eruptions of the Soufrière Hills volcano began in 1995.
What is Plymouth?
The Khmer city of Angkor is often cited as a key example of collapse due to the failure of its massive, centralized water management system, qualifying it as this type of settlement.
What is a Hydraulic City?
This Spanish conquistador led the 1519 expedition that ultimately resulted in the overthrow of the Aztec civilization and the capture of their ruler, Moctezuma II.
Who is Hernán Cortés?
These knotted, colored string devices were used by the Inka empire to record numerical data, census information, and possibly historical narratives, as they lacked an alphabetic writing system.
What is a Khipu?
This political process, literally meaning "dwelling together," refers to the unification of smaller Greek villages or communities into a single major city-state or Polis.
What is Synoecism?
This catastrophic mixture of superheated gas and volcanic debris, often referred to as a glowing avalanche, is the primary hazard from Mt. Vesuvius and the Soufrière Hills.
What is Pyroclastic Flow?
This theory, advanced by Paul Kennedy, explains the decline of large states by arguing that they overextend themselves militarily and fiscally until their commitments become unsustainable.
What is Imperial Overstretch?
This civilization's writing system, known for its complex glyphs, was one of the most sophisticated in the ancient Americas, and was used to record history and their famous Calendar.
What is the Maya script?
This hypothesis suggests that early complex societies in the Andes developed largely due to the rich resources provided by the Pacific coast's marine economy, rather than relying solely on agricultural foundations.
What is the Maritime Foundations Hypothesis (MFH)?
This tightly packed formation of citizen-soldiers, called Hoplites, was the defining tactic of Greek warfare and required high levels of training and cooperation.
What is the Phalanx?
In disaster archaeology, this term, often contrasted with an Event, describes a disaster that unfolds slowly over time, such as chronic volcanic activity or long-term Environmental Degradation.
What is a Process?
This theory, associated with Joseph Tainter, posits that societies collapse when the cost of maintaining their level of sociopolitical complexity eventually outweighs its benefits.
What is Diminishing Marginal Returns?